Belgium jails GRU officer for sanction busting
Viktor Labin (Photo: The Insider)
Belgian
authorities have jailed Viktor Labin, an officer with Russia’s GRU military
intelligence, for arranging shipments of coordinate measuring machines to
Russian defense companies, independent Russian outlet The Insider reported on
Feb. 19.
Citing a response from Belgium’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, The Insider writes that Belgian police searched Labin in June 2025. He has been held in custody since then pending trial; his first court hearing is scheduled for Feb. 26.
In an investigation published Jan. 27, 2024, The Insider said Labin, who lives in Brussels, and his sons used the company Groupe d’Investissement Financier to supply coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and related services to what the outlet described as “the whole of the Russian defense industry.” The Insider said Labin’s company provided supply and maintenance services in 2022 for at least 18 Russian defense enterprises and imported measuring equipment from several countries, including Italy (Tomelleri Engineering), Germany (Messtechnik), and the United Kingdom (Aberlink).
The Insider also found address records showing Labin was
once registered at a dormitory of the GRU academy in Moscow and later lived in
Zelenograd in a building that housed military personnel. It was not clear when
he moved to Belgium; The Insider said he was already living in Brussels on
Winston Churchill Avenue and conducting business there by 2000.
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